Cy-Fair harriers hope to retrace state steps

Published 3:49 pm, Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Cy Fair girls cross country coach Tom Kennedy during the Humble pre-regional cross country meet at Atascocita High School Saturday 9/15/12. Photo Â by Tony Bullard.

Cy Fair girls cross country coach Tom Kennedy during the Humble pre-regional cross country meet at Atascocita High School Saturday 9/15/12. Photo Â by Tony Bullard.

Photo: Â Tony Bullard 2012, Freelance Photographer

Cy-Fair harriers hope to retrace state steps

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The Cy-Fair girls cross country team added to their district championship résumé last year, pushing their current streak to four straight. They also placed third in the region and ninth at the state meet.

"It was good that we got to state and continued the streak of district championships," coach Tom Kennedy said. "We might have had our best performance at district, and the regional performance was good enough to get the job done."

Kennedy says "good enough," as in not great, and that's not enough for him.

The Bobcats were state runners-up three years ago and regional champs in 2010 and 2011, and he wants them there again.

But achieving that goal won't be easy.

Cy-Fair graduated its top three girls, and they're all running for big-time Division I college programs now: Lauren Fritz (Texas), Faith Banker (Texas Tech) and Emily Willingham (Texas A&M).

Now, two-thirds of the team is made up of underclassmen.

"They're young," Kennedy said.

"We did have three of the seven from last year return, and two of those three are seniors. … (But) this is the first time in a long time that I have nobody with two years of varsity experience on the roster."

"She's been pretty consistent," Kennedy said. "She's running healthy and has been for a while, and I'm expecting her to place high in district, and hopefully the region, too."

Guevara had a good summer and Luna could heat up and emerge as the Bobcats' No. 1 girl, but junior Allison Hill holds that title early.

She was hurt most of last year and wasn't really right until late in the track season, but she rededicated herself in the offseason, finding a new commitment and approach, and she's close to taking off.

"She just opened her mind up a little bit to accepting that it's going to be hard and there's nothing around that, and she trains really hard now," Kennedy said.

Kennedy said the Bobcats turned in their best showing at the Oak Ridge Invitational last week, though their times didn't reflect it. They were third as a team to College Park and The Woodlands.

"A lot of the girls were even a little sick, colds and stuff, but they still ran really well, competed well," he said.